6.  The applicant was born in 1985. He originates from Mosul.
7.  The applicant arrived in Sweden on 21 December 2009 and applied for asylum the following day. In support of his application, he submitted in essence the following. He is Christian and he used to live with his parents and siblings in Mosul, where he had attended school for 14 years. In July and August 2008 the family had received telephone threats from Ansar Al‑Sunna, a Sunni insurgent group, which had demanded that they pay 60,000 U.S. dollars and convert to Islam. Shortly thereafter, his father had been shot and wounded by four masked men. In December 2008 his family had received further telephone threats from Ansar Al-Sunna. They had then left their house and moved into a church where they had stayed until January 2009. The applicant’s mother had disappeared on 20 January 2009 when she had been out looking for a new house and had been missing ever since. The rest of the family had moved to a Christian family’s house. In February 2009 the applicant’s father had had to go to hospital and shortly thereafter he had died. The applicant and his siblings had stayed with the Christian family, but the applicant had felt controlled and guarded when leaving the house. He had been afraid that terrorists would find them and kill them. He had therefore left Iraq in October 2009. He feared that he would be subjected to violence and even killed if he were to return to Iraq. The authorities could not protect him.
8.  On 8 February 2010 the Migration Board (Migrationsverket) rejected the application. The Board held that the telephone threats were to be considered as acts of criminality rather than religious persecution. It considered that there was no obvious connection between the threats, the shooting of the applicant’s father and the disappearance of his mother. It further noted that the applicant had not been personally subjected to any threats or violence and that he had stayed in Mosul for nine months following the disappearance of his mother without facing any threats. In light of this, the Board concluded that he did not risk being subjected to any persecution or inhuman treatment if he were to return to Iraq.
9.  The applicant appealed, stating that his father had been killed by three police officers and that these officers had been looking for the applicant after his mother’s disappearance. He further claimed that he was in a poor mental state and submitted medical documents to support this contention.
10.  On 19 October 2010 the Migration Court (Migrationsdomstolen) upheld the decision of the Board. The court considered that the applicant had shown that he would be at risk of serious persecution if he were to return to Mosul due to the conflicts there and that it was clear from recent country information that the local authorities could not offer him any protection. However, having regard to the general situation as well as the applicant’s personal circumstances, including his gender, age, health, religion and ethnicity, the court found the Kurdistan Region of Iraq to be a reasonable relocation alternative.
11.  On 30 November 2010 the Migration Court of Appeal (Migrations-överdomstolen) refused the applicant leave to appeal.